Oct. 18, 2009)  The Post & Email has in several articles mentioned that the Supreme Court of the United States has given the definition of what a natural born citizen is. Since being a natural born citizen is an objective qualification and requirement of office for the U.S. President, it is important for all U.S. Citizens to understand what this term means.

Lets cut through all the opinion and speculation, all the he says, she says, fluff, and go right to the irrefutable, constitutional authority on all terms and phrases mentioned in the U.S. Constitution: the Supreme Court of the United States.

First, let me note that there are 4 such cases which speak of the notion of natural born citizenship.

I am not aware of the "natural born citizen" requirement for any position, office or administrative reason, except for the office of POTUS that is clearly presented in the Constitution.

If the American people see this as no longer a necessary requirement, well, there's a process that must be followed to change the Constitutional requirement -- to do otherwise is to set a dreadful precedent.

you are totally misrepresenting the opinion and you do not cite what references the court used in its decision...

First. On her birth in New York, the plaintiff became a citizen of the United States. Civil Rights Act of 1866

Be it enacted . . ., That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States;

Then the court goes on to cite WKA as a reference in which we know references Minor v Happersett:

The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners. Some authorities go further and include as citizens children born within the jurisdiction without reference to the citizenship of their parents. As to this class there have been doubts, but never as to the first. -Chief Justice Waite in Minor v. Happersett (1875)

In Minor v. Happersett, Chief Justice Waite, when construing, in behalf of the court, the very provision of the fourteenth amendment now in question, said: The constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. -Justice Grey, in US v Wong Kim Ark (1898)

54
posted on 01/10/2010 11:25:57 PM PST
by patlin
(1st SCOTUS of USA: "Human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law.")

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

60
posted on 01/11/2010 6:22:21 AM PST
by Beckwith
(A "natural born citizen" -- two American citizen parents and born in the USA.)

“§ 1473. It is indispensable, too, that the president should be a natural born citizen of the United States; or a citizen at the adoption of the constitution, and for fourteen years before his election. This permission of a naturalized citizen to become president is an exception from the great fundamental policy of all governments, to exclude foreign influence from their executive councils and duties. It was doubtless introduced (for it has now become by lapse of time merely nominal, and will soon become wholly extinct) out of respect to those distinguished revolutionary patriots, who were born in a foreign land, and yet had entitled themselves to high honors in their adopted country.”

From this passage, it is clear that Joseph Story was saying that a natural-born citizen is the opposite of a naturalized citizen; thus, a natural-born citizen is someone that is a citizen at birth, while a naturalized citizen becomes a citizen later in life.

Which means that if Obama was born in Kenya, then he isn’t a natural-born citizen because federal law at the time only gave U.S. citizenship at birth to a child born abroad with one U.S. citizen parent if such parent had lived in the U.S. for at least 5 years after the age of 14 (and Obama’s mother hadn’t yet turned 19 years of age when he was born). However, if Obama was born in Hawaii, then he’s a U.S. citizen at birth and thus a natural-born citizen.

“... thus, a natural-born citizen is someone that is a citizen at birth, while a naturalized citizen becomes a citizen later in life.” By mistating your premise to include that which you wish to establish as singular truth, you have deceived readers and yourself. Naturalized is a process reached through statute, ie, some legal statute establishes citizenship. By statute is not a state achieved by meeting the primary definition of natural born. Even you can think up a case where someone born on American soil but not a natural born citizen at birth and not a citizen at birth can become a citizen by statute passed later in life yet reaching back to date of birth, state of parents’ citizenship, and location. [HINT: think children born to diplomats and years later Congress establishes a statute covering siad child born to a diplomat of a foreign country.]

66
posted on 01/11/2010 8:50:03 AM PST
by MHGinTN
(Obots, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)

A child of foreign diplomats born in the U.S. is not a U.S. citizen because U.S. laws (and, less relevantly, the 14th Amendment) in existence well before 1961 and still in effect today specifically state that the children of foreign diplomats do not acquire U.S. citizenship merely by being born in the U.S. However, the laws of the U.S. in 1961 said that the child of a U.S. citizen and a foreigner is a U.S. citizen at birth if he was born in the U.S. Ergo, if Obama was born in Hawaii, he was a U.S. citizen at birth; if he was born abroad, then he wasn’t (because his citizen mother hadn’t lived in the U.S. for 5 at least years past the age of 14 as the statute required in cases of foreign birth).

Your theory is that a person can be a U.S. citizen at birth and not be a natural-born citizen. I disagree with you, as did, apparently, Joseph Story. That doesn’t prove that you are wrong, but at the very least you should accept that that passage from Story’s Commentaries is a point in my favor.

I’m not in some sort of contest with you; I just find natural born—based upon the writings from the eras of our Constitution being written and by whom it was written, their comments on the subject—to mean two American citizen parents and born on American soil or territory (as in an embassy or military base rented lands). Changing the Constitution by fiat fits leftist fascist design, but it is anti-American in the main.

68
posted on 01/11/2010 11:36:45 AM PST
by MHGinTN
(Obots, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)

The only reason to check for Natural Born Citizenship is in the process of determining a President. It is a constitutional obligation.

McCain was tested for his “Natural Born Citizenship” by congress before he ran for President. He was qualified because both his parents were Americans at the time of his birth.

Obama was not, because he would not pass the test. It was a brilliant move by Dems to focus on McCain and then be generous to allow him to run. They had no issues running against a feeble old man. Getting Obamma past this requirement was their motive. (IE, “We gave you a gold plated pass for your Panamanian born senator, now leave us alone.”)

That opened the door for Obama to get in without being given a natural born citizen test.

Believe me, the fact that Obamma was not tested like McCain was not an accident. Harry Ried was running the show, and he slected Obama to run. We have never seen any original documents for Obama, and he was in fact born a British subject. As a matter of Fact, not opinion, we now have a "British born subject" running the American government.

You’re right, we’re not in a contest—I apologize for using language that implied that we were.

Regarding your expanded definition of U.S. soil, federal law does not grant birthright citizenship to persons born in U.S. military bases abroad or in U.S. embassies or consulates. If a Cuban woman gives birth in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base to a baby whose father is also a non-citizen, then the baby would not be a U.S. citizen at birth under federal law, the same as if the baby had been born outside of the base. Same goes with an embassy—if a cleaning woman gives birth in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, the baby wouldn’t be a U.S. citizen. This is because while in conversation people use terms such as “U.S. soil” or “U.S. jurisdiction” to refer to embassies and military bases abroad, such places are legally part of the sovereign territory of the foreign nation surrounding them and the only “jurisdiction” that the U.S. has is what was given to us by treaty.

Of course, if what matters is whether or not a person is a U.S. citizen at birth, irrespective of where he was born, then it doesn’t matter whether the child of U.S. citizens was born in a hospital inside or outside of the U.S. military base, since he is a U.S. citizen at birth under federal law irrespective of where he was born.

Common sense defines it. He was born on United States soil (lets assume) the son of a father who was at all times a UK/Kenyan citizen.

Which, according to the 14th Amendment, made him a citizen of the United States from the moment of birth. Since the Constitution only identifies two forms of citizenship, and since Obama wasn't naturalized, then that narrows his status down to natural-born.

It strikes me as strange to insist in this case on an explicit definition in the Constitution itself, given the fact that the Constitution routinely uses a lot of other terms without defining them; and so, quite a few interpretations in many other cases (not just regarding natural-born citizenship) have been based on discerning the intent of the framers and determining their likely use of language as understood at the time. Why is that not allowed now?

The meaning of “Is” is subject to interpretation. “Arms” is not defined in the constitution, therefore congress can out law guns and must not regulate T-shirts.

Natural born Citizen is not defined, therefore A British born Subject can run for president.

When the terms of language are set upon quicksand as you insist, there is no constitution. There is no law. There is no justice. People then set the rules on their own terms with their own instruments of justice, as they must, as they are forced to.

It strikes me as strange to insist in this case on an explicit definition in the Constitution itself, given the fact that the Constitution routinely uses a lot of other terms without defining them; and so, quite a few interpretations in many other cases (not just regarding natural-born citizenship) have been based on discerning the intent of the framers and determining their likely use of language as understood at the time. Why is that not allowed now?

Because at the time you had at least two different schools of thought on the definition of natural-born citizen. The true test is how it is defined in federal law or in Supreme Court decisions. In three of the four cases mentioned, the circumstances of birth were not matters before the court at the time. In the fourth case, the Ark decision, the court ruled that Ark was a citizen of the U.S. from birth regardless of the nationality of the parents. Again, since the Constitution only identifies two forms of citizenship, citizen at birth and citizen by birth and natural-born citizen are all synonymous.

When the terms of language are set upon quicksand as you insist, there is no constitution. There is no law. There is no justice. People then set the rules on their own terms with their own instruments of justice, as they must, as they are forced to.

That's the problem. There is law. There is justice. There is a Constitution. You just choose to ignore it.

John Jay wrote: “Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and reasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.”

Barack Obama admits to being a foreigner — he admits to being a citizen of Kenya and a British subject.

85
posted on 01/11/2010 1:21:41 PM PST
by Beckwith
(A "natural born citizen" -- two American citizen parents and born in the USA.)

A non-binding Senate resolution? Whoopie. But if non-binding resolutions are the be-all and end-all for you then how about HR 593 which recognized the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood and it's status as the birthplace of the current president? Does that solve it for you?

Four of them were listed in this article. Of those, three do not deal with natural-born citizenship and a clear reading of the Ark case indicates that the court ruled that he was a natural-born citizen regardless of his parent's citizenship.

His Kenyan citizen lapsed when he turned 21 so he's no longer a citizen of any foreign country. And he's also a U.S. citizen from birth, which means he is a natural-born citizen.

The House passes a non binding resolution recognizing Hawaii as the 50th state and Abercombie throws Obama a bone stating he was born there. The Senate passes a non binding resolution stating McCain is some type of citizen. I find this quite humorous.

Since the proverbial horse has left the barn, impeachment of the current occupant of the White House is the logical remedy to remove him from office with the caveat of evidence to support Constitutional requirements.

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